BANNER Ladies’ Football Club hit the road this weekend when both the seniors and the U-14s participate in All-Ireland seven-a-side competitions in Dublin.Both teams will part company at the Red Cow as the seniors, who are the current All-Ireland Intermediate Champions, head north for Naomh Mearnóg/St Sylvester’s in Portmarnock and the U-14s head south to the Kilmacud Crokes grounds in Stillorgan to join teams from all over the country. Banner have taken the laurels in the Kilmacud Crokes’ U-14 All-Ireland seven-a-side competitions only once, in 2006, when they also claimed the Football Féile Division 1 title, which they had previously won in 2005 and 2001 at Division 2 level. The seniors have just attained their third county championship in four consecutive appearances and are pencilled in to meet Cappawhite in the Munster Senior B Club semi-final on October 1. The Banner beat Cappawhite in last year’s All-Ireland seven-a-side intermediate final, adding another element of spice to the Munster club match. …

St Joseph’s  0-7 Doonbeg  0-6 A powerful last quarter at Lissycasey on Saturday saw St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield cause the shock of the 2011 Clare Senior Football Championship by ousting the defending champions, Doonbeg.The Magpies may have been most people’s favourites to win this one but few will deny St Joseph’s were deserving winners on a day when a strong wind and driving rain made conditions very difficult for the players.Shrewd changes in the second half played a big part in this win, with substitutes Christy O’Brien and Colm Mullen kicking the final two scores of the match. From his juvenile days, Mullen was noted as an accurate and skillful forward. With Saturday’s game in the first minute of injury time, the ball was delivered to the St Joseph’s man and from 40 yards out on the right wing he made no mistake for what proved to be the winning score.Doora-Barfield looked to be in a strong position when they trailed …

ST Joseph’s Doora-Barefield’s stunning defeat of county champions Doonbeg has underlined the changing demographics of Clare football. Couple this with Cratloe’s advancement to the semi-final and the fact that Wolfe Tones should really have beaten Kilkee and there is clear evidence that West Clare’s football power base is eroding rapidly.It is a common belief in the west that this development is not good for Clare football. The fact that many Cratloe, Doora-Barefield and Wolfe Tones footballers are dual players is held as evidence against them. The view is that these players will opt to play hurling, rather than football, for Clare if they have a choice to make.However, before anybody in West Clare suggests that the rise of East and Mid-Clare football is bad for the game in the county, they should examine why many players from their own areas don’t represent the county. If some of the top footballers in West Clare can’t be bothered playing for Clare, why …

  Kilkee   0-12 Wolfe Tones  2-6 FOUR points down and a man short two minutes from the end of normal time, Kilkee looked to have kicked their last ball in 2011. Another team might have accepted that they were gone and thought about heading for home but Kilkee stuck at it and three Michael O’Shea frees drew them to within a point of Wolfe Tones. Following the third of these frees, which was kicked in the fourth minute of injury time, Wolfe Tones goalkeeper Jason Casey lined up the kick-out. Unfortunately, for the Shannon men, the kick-out went straight down the middle where Barry Harte was waiting. The Kilkee centre-forward didn’t need much encouragement to run at Wolfe Tones and angle over a magnificent equalising left-footed point.Seconds later, Michael Talty called for the ball, meaning St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield would have to wait at least a week to find out who their semi-final opponents will be.The plus for Wolfe Tones is …

Kilmurry Ibrickane  0-7 O’Curry’s  0-5 AS praiseworthy as this result is from Kilmurry Ibrickane’s viewpoint, it is not a great sign of the strength of the intermediate football championship when a club’s second team reaches the final. There is no doubt but that Kilmurry fully deserve their place in the final against Clondegad. They have won all four of their games and nobody can argue with that.Having been relegated from senior last year, O’Curry’s would have been hoping for an immediate return. This result rules that out and O’Curry’s will now have to hope that their older players don’t retire and that some of their younger ones keep developing.In a game played in exceptionally difficult conditions in Kilrush, Kilmurry led 0-4 to 0-2 at half-time, with Odran O’Dwyer scoring all four points, while Ger Quinlan was the only O’Curry’s man to get on the scoresheet in both halves.O’Dwyer scored again for Kilmurry early in the second half to extend their …

Kilmurry Ibrickane  0-7 O’Curry’s  0-5 AS praiseworthy as this result is from Kilmurry Ibrickane’s viewpoint, it is not a great sign of the strength of the intermediate football championship when a club’s second team reaches the final. There is no doubt but that Kilmurry fully deserve their place in the final against Clondegad. They have won all four of their games and nobody can argue with that.Having been relegated from senior last year, O’Curry’s would have been hoping for an immediate return. This result rules that out and O’Curry’s will now have to hope that their older players don’t retire and that some of their younger ones keep developing.In a game played in exceptionally difficult conditions in Kilrush, Kilmurry led 0-4 to 0-2 at half-time, with Odran O’Dwyer scoring all four points, while Ger Quinlan was the only O’Curry’s man to get on the scoresheet in both halves.O’Dwyer scored again for Kilmurry early in the second half to extend their …

Shannon Gaels  1-10 Ennistymon   1-6 WHILE neither team wanted to play in the Senior B Championship and would ideally have much preferred to have been playing championship quarter-final football last Saturday, they served up a competitive hour’s football in Quilty. Following this four-point win, Shannon Gaels will play Kilrush in the final on Sunday week.Brian Cunningham, John Paul O’Neill and Noel Kennedy kicked early Gaels points before Michael Houlihan and Seán McGonigle, with a well-worked goal, replied for Ennistymon.However, Shannon Gaels added a brace of points to take a one-point, interval lead, 0-5 to 1-1.John Paul O’Neill netted the crucial score of the second half, when he goaled 15 minutes from time.Shannon Gaels: Keith Ryan; Brian Bermingham, John Neylon, Fergal Kenny; Michael Coughlan, Frank Cleary, Tomás Cleary; Michael O’Donoghue, Noel Kennedy; Fergal O’Neill, Brian Cunningham, John Bermingham; Brian O’Shea, John Paul O’Neill, David Neylon.Subs: Seán Reynolds for Fergal O’Neill and Fergal O’Neill for Brian O’Shea.Ennistymon: Noel Sexton; Michael Devitt, Laurence …

  Sixmilebridge   5-5 Éire Óg  0-9 Sixmilebrige strolled to their fifth U-16A Hurling Championship in a row last Saturday evening in Cusack Park as they smashed in four goals in the opening half to lay the foundations for a well-deserved victory over Éire Óg. Heavy downpours throughout the day, allied to the fact that Cratloe and Lissycasey had only hours previously played out a turbulent senior football quarter final, created a slippery and cut-up surface at the county grounds. The conditions made it difficult and this was illustrated in the stop-start nature that defined the opening half. ’Bridge midfielder Brian Corry, star of their semi-final win over Clarecastle, was the first to trouble the scorekeeper as he shot what was the score of the day inside five minutes. Collecting the ball along the sideline, Corry struck sweetly off his left side, which sailed between the posts to give the winners an advantage that they would never relinquish. A pointed free …

Banner Ladies 4-20 Burren Gaels 0-6 Banner Ladies won their fourth successive minor A football title when they beat Burren Ladies in last Saturday’s final. While the final scoreline was emphatic, Burren Gaels made the Banner fight for every inch in the first half. A dipping ball in the 13th minute, kicked in by Banner’s Rebecca Culligan, found the net. This was a score from which Burren Gaels didn’t recover. Difficult weather conditions in Corofin dampened the flow of the game from the outset but, fighting a headwind, the Banner registered five points from four of their six forwards, Eva O’Dea’s opener, sister Niamh’s two points from frees, Orlaith Lynch and Karen Roche all scored before Burren’s Niamh Considine put one up on the board. The indomitable Niamh O’Dea tacked on another two points, one from a free, and as the Burren Gaels found their flow they put some nice passages of play together down the left wing, inspired by …

Having qualified for the senior football semi-final for the first time in their history, Cratloe go into this Saturday’s hurling quarter-final against Tulla determined to keep their challenge for the double alive.They didn’t have the best of starts to the campaign when they lost to Tubber in round one but they have fought their way back into contention and will wear the favourite’s tag this week.Tulla, on the other hand, had a much better start to the championship, winning their first two games but they have struggled since. They were comprehensively beaten by Sixmilebridge in round three and, last time out, went under to Wolfe Tones. It can be argued that there was nothing at stake when they played the Shannon outfit but had a near full-strength team and they were up against a side that had lost all their previous games in the group.Tulla did have some injury problems that evening and it remains to be seen if Andrew …

Clonlara and Kilmaley, the only two unbeaten sides, will be in opposition on Sunday evening. Clonlara have topped Group 1 with three wins and a draw while Kilmaley were runners-up in Group 4 with two wins and two draws to their credit.The absence of Domhnaill O’Donovan and Darach Honan due to injury is, without question, a huge blow to the South East Clare side but they have reached this stage of the competition without both players.O’Donovan has been out of action since May due to a back complaint while Honan hasn’t played since the summer due to a groin strain. There appears to be little chance that either will see action this year, although there are reports that O’Donovan is back doing some running.Current county minors Colm Galvin, Cathal O’Connell and Shane O’Brien are expected to be in the Clonlara line-up. All three have impressed in the side’s progress to this stage of the championship.O’Connell will join his brothers Nicky …

Titleholders Crusheen have shown mixed form this season but they have reached this stage of the championship without suffering a defeat. They emerged as the top team in what many considered to be the group of death. They delivered the results when required and this was particularly evident in round three, when they came up against Newmarket. A strong finish from the champions left Newmarket needing other results to go their way if they were to qualify, but this didn’t happen.Broadford are surprise quarter-finalists and the key result for them was their fourth-round victory over St Joseph’s. They have shown mixed form over the past couple of seasons and after disappointing in 2010, they have bounced back this season.They had a bye in the opening round and were unlucky to lose their first outing against Clonlara in round two. Since then, they have been on a winning run and have improved with each outing. They will need to show further …

Tony Carmody would probably have preferred if the pairings had provided anything other than a Sixmilebridge v Inagh-Kilnamona meeting.Having taken the decision to join Sixmilebridge at the beginning of this year, he now finds himself preparing to line out against his native club. The former Clare star returned to training at the weekend after being out of action for a few weeks due to a hamstring injury that he sustained when leading Clare to the All-Ireland intermediate title in Thurles a few weeks earlier. It’s expected he will be fit to take his place in the half-forward line on Saturday evening.Caimin Morey is also back in contention for a place in the line-up, having returned from the US, where he spent the summer months. Rory Shanahan is another who was in the US for the summer and he is also back in contention.The expectation is that Eamonn Glynn will be in the starting line-up for the Inagh-Kilnamona outfit for this …

Newmarket on Fergus 3-7 Sixmilebridge 3-6 Niki Kaiser was the heroine for Newmarket-on-Fergus on Friday night, when injury time goal, in the 61st minute, snatched victory from Sixmilebridge who had led from the 15th minute. The much-anticipated pairing of these neighbouring clubs lived up to its expectations with much at stake. Sixmilebridge had to register a win to push this group to a play-off, whereas a draw would have sufficed for Newmarket. Newmarket started stronger and when Ruth Kaiser sent a long-range shot into the square from midfield in the seventh minute, younger sister, Niki, was on hand to gather the rebound from the ensuing scramble and finish to the net. Áine O’Brien had the opportunity to push the Blues further in front three minutes later, but saw her free swept off course by the strong breeze favouring Sixmilebridge. Niamh McInerney accurately picked out Ciara Whelan with her puck out and Whelan passed to Naomi Carroll who cut through the …

Éire Óg         2-2 Sixmilebridge         0-3 Éire Óg overcame the odds to claim a place in the U-16A final with a deserved 2-2 to 0-3 win over Sixmilebridge. Excellent defending from both sides meant that it was ten minutes before Sixmilebridge registered the opening score of the match with a well-taken point from play. They tacked on two more points over the next eight minutes to give them a three-point lead. However, Éire Óg’s Caroline Walsh wiped out the ‘Bridge’s hard earned advantage when she hand-passed the ball to the net to leave the sides all square at the break. The Ennis girls hit the ground running from the second half throw in. Lisa Greene goaled in the second minute, giving her side a great boost. A pointed free from Orla Devitt gave Éire Óg a four-point lead. The Éire Óg half-back and full-back lines dealt with everything the ‘Bridge threw at them. Caroline Walsh sealed victory …